|
Hi all,
Our group normally does rolled stats and so my character ended up with a 4 stat ability.
I am currently playing with a bunch of different ideas but I am leaning towards putting it in Wisdom or Charisma.
I was wondering how you guys would deal with this stat role play wise.
(in case you are wondering I am thinking of playing a halfling slinger who is extremely gullible )
A character in one of the games I play in has a 5 charisma. He plays it rather interestingly. He is a tiefling who was previously worshipped by a deranged cult. He is special kinds of arrogant and obnoxious, and behaves literally as if the rest of the world is beneath him. He blurts things out, causes all sorts of havoc in social situations and is actually quite a fun character.
|
A 4 wisdom is going to get your character killed. You will fail every will save. You will fail every perception check. It might be fun to roleplay, but sooner or later, you will die from a wisdom that low.
A 4 charisma isn't much better, but you will be looking at a 6 after racial bonus assuming you are a halfling, so it isn't quite as crippling. I would play his as a combination of lack of knowledge and being incredibly stubborn and obnoxious about things.
|
I would defintely put the low stat in charisma for the reason imbicatus mentioned. a friend of mine is playing a duergar with a really low chr.
He is playing that character wears a bad toupee to cover his baldness and acts like dude stuck in the 70's you know open polyester shirt with gold chains and really bad pickup lines.
A 4 INT might be feasible. Play a class that already gets only 2+INT skill ranks per level, because you always get at least 1. If you want more skill ranks than that, you can use your favoured class bonus to get an extra one, and/or play a human so that skilled trait gives you an extra one. As far as I know these bonuses are applied after you calculate your total skill ranks per level, so you still get them.
A character with a 4 INT will have an extremely poor memory and will forget what he is doing and where he is going all the time. Don't bother with knowledge skills at all; your character's memory is so bad that he forgets most of these details almost immediately after hearing them. A low INT character probably spends a fair bit of time watching his companions and doing what they do on the assumption that they remember what they are supposed to do. But they will probably tend to forget any complex battle-plan in the heat of battle; a fighter with an INT 4 would likely just charge when he sees his enemy.
On the other hand, how perceptive and alert your character is is governed by WIS, and how socially adept your character is is governed by CHA, so your character won't be "stupid" in all respects, but a 4 stat is going to be radically below average.
INT 4 can actually work for characters other than fighters though; a sorcerer or cleric is feasible too though they will take a bit more work. The INT 4 cleric when seeing something that outrages him morally might forget that the party is actually trying to sneak into the evil temple using disguise and blow the party's cover at precisely the wrong time.
Ultimately your party had better be OK with you screwing up their plans in comical ways if you want to play a character with INT 4.
I agree with Imbicatus that a WIS 4 character is asking for trouble.
A CHA 4 character is doable as a sort of filthy cave-man raised-by-wolves type with twigs in his hair and no experience dealing with humans at all. It's a bit stereotypical to dump CHA but it works for very specific character types. Basically druid, barbarian, or ranger comes to mind, or possibly a cleric of a nature deity.
The other way to go would be with a non melee class entirely and make your STR 4. A sorcerer can easily work with a 4 Strength. Crossbows are your friend. Buy a mule to carry your stuff and run away from enemies that try to engage you in melee. Especially from anything that drains STR, like a shadow. But then, sorcerers should do that anyway.
A dawnflower dervish will also work with low STR. You really need to monitor carrying capacity though and muleback cords are actually useful for this kind of character.
Peet
|
|
Another option would be to play a Lore Oracle with Sidestep Secret, and put the 4 into Dex. You'll be last in initiative every round, but you can apply CHA to AC and Reflex Saves instead of Dex. You can roleplay it as a divine epilepsy that causes you tremors that are clumsily moving you away from harm by chance at the last possible second.
|
Another option would be to play a Lore Oracle with Sidestep Secret, and put the 4 into Dex. You'll be last in initiative every round, but you can apply CHA to AC and Reflex Saves instead of Dex. You can roleplay it as a divine epilepsy that causes you tremors that are clumsily moving you away from harm by chance at the last possible second.
If this is an idea the OP is considering, taking Noble Scion as your first level feat may be a good idea (if you choose the Scion of War): get to use Cha instead of Dex for initiative.
Otherwise, you can roleplay a 4 CHA character a few different ways:
1) No brain to mouth filter: you literally say whatever pops into your head. "Wow, you sure are ugly, mister." "Uhm, that's a woman." "Well then, you are *really* ugly!"
2) A timid person, who does what most people tell him/her to do (your INT and WIS scores will determine how often and what you will and will not do).
Mechanically speaking, a 4 WIS character would be bad, but if you do go for that, you have no lick of common sense. Perhaps when someone tells you a joke, you interpret it literally (this would be good if your character has a decent INT). "The chicken crossed the road to get to the other side" "Hopefully he doesn't get run over by a cart."
Dont you know that the mechanical effect is he only thing that matters, and if you want to play a four charisma as don juan, its perfectly fine?
( extracts tongue from cheek)
Yeah, DEX is a decent idea. Or- Why not try a CON of 4? Doc Holiday, Elric. No one ever dumps CON for RPing reasons. Be bold, be unique.
.Yes, dumping INT or CHA is common among Min/Maxers. But that because, to them, those stats rarely add to DPR, and that’s all they care about- and they have no effect on defenses, also important. Honestly an adventurer can’t have a CHA lower than 8, that would mean they don’t even have the personality to join with a group and go adventuring. Read what others have said about what they think a low CHA is “arrogant, obnoxious, stubborn, raised-by-wolves ” but all those are hallmarks of a definite strong personality- which a very low CHA doesn’t have.
Frankly, a 4 just doesn’t happen in Golarion. No NPC has a stat less than 8 unless it’s racial or a special one time case.
So, just be honest and be unique. Go for the 4 DEX or CON. Go for a stat that doesn’t have to be RPed all that much, one with mechanical constraints. Rather than roll their eyes at yet another Mix/Maxer dumping CHA, they will approve your boldness.
Now yes- you may well die. But at least you’ll do so honestly.